13 is often donned the unlucky number, but take Stevie Wonder’s advice – “Superstition ain’t the way.” There is certainly nothing unlucky about the exhibition, 13 Rooms.

Fall down the rabbit hole, into a world of the unknown. Jam-packed with intriguing sculptures, it’s a whole new way of looking at art, where every door you enter boggles your mind even more than the last.

These sculptures are not made of stone or marble, nor do they sit still on their plinth all day and night. Instead, these sculptures are made of flesh and they go home to sleep each night.

Let me give you a sneak peak into some of the rooms at the exhibition:

Allora & Calzadilla

When you live in Sydney, you are bound to stumble across a revolving glass door. You cannot avoid them. The door leads you into an important office building. A horrible thing happens – more than one person steps into the revolving door at the same time. You’re stuck and the only thing left to do is shuffle without stepping on anyone’s feet or bumping into the glass. This room lets you re-live that experience, but replaces the glass with dancers rotating around the room. Clapping and clicking in unison gives the feel of a political protest or military march.

Damien Hirst

Expect to see double in this room. Identical twins are always hard to tell apart. It may seem hard to not offend twins, but it’s not really your fault they look, well, identical. Damien Hirst is the ultimate mind-boggler. Hirst has set up a room with a cast of rotating twins sitting in front of two spot paintings. After a while you begin to pick the different personalities, gestures and habits of two so very similar looking people.

Xavier Le Roy

Enter: a room of darkness. There could be anything in the room. An elephant in the corner, perhaps? Temporary blindness. As you stand stiff in one place, worrying about accidentally stepping on something or someone, your eyes adjust to the darkness. Two masked figures move around the room. This discovery adds a whole bucket of confusion to the cauldron. You question, “What are these figures doing?” A mix of logic and imagination will piece the puzzle together.

Xu Zhen

In the middle of the room is a body bending backwards, mysteriously floating mid air. The body, frozen in time. There is no shaking or struggling, just absolute stillness. Is this real? You will walk around the room looking for a piece of string. Nothing. How can this be physically possible? Where is the trickery? This room is the magic trick where you know the magician has a secret, but you can’t quite work out how they did it.

Roman Ondak

Let’s go back to the days of bartering. I will swap you my plump cow for ten of your chickens. In this room, exchanges occur without live animals. Sitting in the middle of the room is a man who constantly exchanges objects from the audience. It is a whole lot of fun to see the audience ruffle through their bag to find interesting objects they can exchange. One girl exchanged a business card for a Barbie doll. That’s a pretty sweet deal.

Want to discover what is lurking behind all the doors? Embrace performance art with these details, below.

What :: 13 Rooms
Where :: Pier 2/3, Hickson Road, Walsh Bay
When :: 11-21 April, 11am-7pm
How Much :: Free

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